This 17-point roundup is about the men and women who put it all on or inside the lines at the rowdiest major event of the season. The hits started early, and they certainly kept coming.
Check out No. 7 here.
"I don't know how to explain my longevity. If I did I would bottle it and sell it. My sister and my family motivate me a lot."
There was Venus Williams: flying solo in the city and across the court, steadfastly making her way to the semifinals and thinking about siste

A peculiarly scorching sun had its way with the Wimbledon grass over this fortnight. But the sun also sets. Here, our ongoing roundup of passing shots from SW19, a curated much-ado-about-everything – if a bit less manicured than the Wimble-lawns themselves.
By now you know about Roger Federer's "great eight" play at this year's Wimbledon.
Aye, you are well acquainted with Roger at his Rogerest:
<blockquote

The news cycle in the tennis world moves fast—who can keep up? That's where we come in. Each Thursday, Last Year Today will look back at a memorable story from exactly one year ago.
The singer Seal will probably go down in history as the man who delivered "Kiss from a Rose" to us all and shared love and children with Heidi Klum. On Monday night at Hotel Puente Romano in Marbella, Spain, he received intel that one Novak Djokovic was in the audien

The news cycle in the tennis world moves fast—who can keep up? That's where we come in. Each Thursday, Last Year Today will look back at a memorable story from exactly one year ago.
Serena Williams is a complicated person, and her day planner isn't simple either. Lately she has promoted her Serena documentary, set to premiere on Epix channel on Wednesday; jetted to the UK to prepare for Wimbledon; relayed to her social-media audiences how she for

Fourhand is our weekly roundup of the latest on- and off-court buzz​.
BOSS MODE
The 35-year-old hit the practice court while an estimated seven months pregnant.
A post shared by Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) on Jun 15, 2017 at 5:56am PDT
The common misconception is that exercising while pregnant is dangerous, when the opposite is actually true. Williams' coach Patrick Mourataglou said Williams may be back on the tour as soon as ...

Ahead of this past weekend's Fed Cup tie between Teams USA and Germany in Hawaii, fun, beach-y moments such as the made for lighthearted fare.
Then the deluge.
A singer delivered a German national anthem that included lyrics from the country's Nazi-era version.
Nazi-era German anthem prompts outrage and apology at Fed Cup pic.twitter.com/zp5PWo0rr3
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) February 12, 2017
Deutsche players inclu

It's been more than 35 years since Ronald Reagan stated, during his first inaugural address, "Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look." We discovered heroes in every state, starting with the determined 69-year-old who won a match at an ITF Pro Circuit event earlier this year in the Alabama town of Pelham, and culminating with the coach who has overcome multiple sclerosis to build a winning program at the University of Wyoming. The...

Having played a lot of doubles over the years, I've taken shots to almost every part of my body. (I think that forehand to the belly button in high school probably hurt most.) And I've long said, "All is fair in doubles."
That statement was put to the test on Saturday at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the womenâ€™s doubles semifinal,Â Switzerland's Martina Hingisâ€"down match pointâ€"planted a forehand volley in the face of opponent the Czech Republic's Andrea ...

Serena Williams sprang for a different kind of Self-ie this month, landing on the cover of yet another magazine.
Self's September issue features Serena as prominently as possible, with "Strong Is Sexy" and "Can't Stop, Won't Stop" cover lines sure to satiate her breathless fan base.
Introducing our incredible September cover star, @serenawilliams! pic.twitter.com/o2KqwHwuP3
â€" SELF Magazine (@SELFmagazine) August 2, 2016
In the feature spread itself, Serena ...

Sometimes the stars simply align. On Sunday evening in Montreal, ahead of jetting off to the Rio Olympics, Eugenie Bouchard enjoyed a concert put on by Celine Dion, her fellow Canadian.
QUEEN pic.twitter.com/jnOTErpKhR
â€" Genie Bouchard (@geniebouchard) July 31, 2016
Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova, who won the doubles title in Montreal, also relished the show, with the former shooting footage of Celine's aural-visual splendor. The set list included such hit songs as "I Drove A...

Fourhand is the Daily Spin's occasional roundup of various hits and misses on tour.
BULLISH: Rafael Nadal is easing back into tournament play. Seeking to compete in the Rio Olympics, he played a practice match at home, on the island of Mallorca, against Wimbledon champ Andy Murray. Rafa reportedly won the first set 6-1, rifling forehands into Murray's backhand at will. Yes, it was just practice, but the video below may be a harbinger of great things to come for the Spaniard.Â
Â
...

It stands to reason that Novak Djokovic's favorite song may be "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" (Yes, from The Lion King.) Upon winning his unprecedented 30th Masters 1000 title on Sunday, and on the occasion of defeating Kei Nishikori for the ninth consecutive time, Djokovic took to the mic and beckoned those in attendance at Toronto's Rogers Cup to turn to each other and, quite simply, hug:
.@DjokerNole: "I'm going to do something I've never done before. I want each of you to HUG the person

Fourhand is the Daily Spin's occasional roundup of various hits and misses on tour.
HIJACKED! Â Did Svetlana Kuznetsova get "punked" in the Rogers Cup locker room this week in Montreal? Perhaps slightly scandalized by the escapade, she seems to think so. "Someone wanted to ruin my mood or something," she wrote on Instagram. "Guys, we are better than it." (In the pic, she removed her insole with the offending matter on it).
Â
As girls requested ))) im putting that pic out . Someon...

Fourhand is the Daily Spin's occasional roundup of various hits and misses on tour.
PEP TALK Â Nike has a seemingly random but accessible and thoughtful video out featuring actor Bobby Cannavale with the tagline, "Champions weren't born champions. They were born babies." Therein, pint-sized versions of Serena Williams, LeBron James, Neymar Jr., and more sports stars rise up (or just roll over) in cribs as he inexplicably paces a crowded infant room and delivers fine-sounding matter-of-fact-is...

Everyone knows that Anna Wintour, so-called editrix of Vogue's U.S. book, prides herself on being a major tennis fan. That was certainly proven true at Wimbledon, where her Roger Federer fandom raged, but it's the magazine brand's Germany edition and U.S.-based website that most recently covered two stars of the sport, Ana Ivanovic and Milos Raonic. Witness exhibits A, B and C:
Â
Sport, Style and Beauty are some of my greatest loves. Thank you @voguegermany for this fun feature that...

Fourhand is the Daily Spin's occasional roundup of various hits and misses on tour.
FED HEADÂ Â According to his new Wilson Tennis video ad, Darth Federer, with his new, all-black axe in tow, is just waiting for you to "eclipse" him. Good luck with that. You probably have a better chance of topping his $400-$800 haircut.
FUN HOUSEÂ Â Fed's mentor of sorts, Pete Sampras, and wife Bridgette Wilson-Sampras have put their BrentwoodÂ estate on the market, and the asking price, resort-st...

Eugenie Bouchard was grilled by the media after her first-round defeat at the Citi Open in Washington this week. In her post-match presser, she laid out why she doesn't find Taylor Swift to be a sympathetic figure in the midst of her war of words (and video clips) with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.
Prefacing her comments with a note on her affinity for the fellow-twenty-something singer and her music, Bouchard said, "I feel like sometimes [Swift] portrays herself as the victim a lot, and she d

The singer Seal will probably go down in history as the man who delivered "Kiss From a Rose" to us all and shared love and children with Heidi Klum. On Monday night at Hotel Puente Romano in Marbella, Spain, he received intel that one Novak Djokovic was in the audience at his concert. Cue Seal dedicating his best-known hit to the Djokovic clan in attendance before launching into the song:
Djokovic, recuperating from an early Wimbledon upset at the forehand-thundering hands of Sam Querrey, has

Ahead of action at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C., Eugenie Bouchard enjoyed a tour of various rooms and grounds at the White House, still home to Barack and Michelle Obama into January 2017. She visited the landmark's James S. Brady Press Briefing Room and other notable spaces in the West Wing:
Gonna ask the prez some questions #pressroom pic.twitter.com/4rPzibU8uD
â€" Genie Bouchard (@geniebouchard) July 16, 2016
Â
So lucky & honoured to visit the @whitehouse today! E...

Fourhand is the Daily Spin's occasional roundup of various hits and misses on tour.
SHE'S GOT YOUR BACK Â Kudos to Timea Bacsinszky, freshly named a UNAIDS global advocate, with intent to reach today's youth with the message that preventative help and treatment options are available, and that none of us areÂ invincible. What's more, and with my own good friend's "frying pan" backhand volley in mind, Bacsinszky shows that she knows how to wield not just a tennis racquet, but also a variety o...

Serena Williams' status in the sports world and the larger global culture continues to expand, as only it can. In a new piece that debuted on his HBO show, Any Given Wednesday, sports authorityÂ Bill Simmons compares her to some of the greatest all-time boxers, including Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, and to other athletic luminaries such as Larry Bird, Roger Federer and John McEnroe. He notes her dominance within her sport itself, including a 16-11 head-to-head record against sister Venus and, ...

On the heels of her unceremonious Wimbledon ouster, Ana Ivanovic took to Venice with her boyfriend of two years, Bastian Schweinsteiger. Ivanovic and the 31-year-old Manchester United soccer player were rumored to be planning to wed around this time of the year.
Bastian Schweinsteiger and Ana Ivanovic spotted in Venice ahead of wedding pic.twitter.com/GYY03P5sLS
â€" MailOnline Sport (@MailSport) July 12, 2016
To that end, this season's whisper-fest turned into...

Good night. Wimbledon didn't disappoint in its 2016 iteration.Â The likes of Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka were missing in action, certainly for different reasons, and yet scads and oodles of drama ensued over two weeks in London. On the heels of giving the French Open the same treatment, here is the Spin's take on the highlights and lowlights of another All England Club delight:
16. Roger Federer may have been a bit off-kilter in his semifinal loss to Milos Raonic, but ...

Never one to be accused of not trying, Dominika Cibulkova stuck out her stubborn Wimbledon run until Elena Vesnina saw otherwise in the quarterfinals. Away from her tennis, which was sterling in her upset of Agnieszka Radwanska in the preceding round, the storyline following the effervescent Slovakian was that she was to marry on July 9â€"Saturday, the day of the women's singles championship at the All England Club. Many wondered aloud whether she'd postpone the nuptial if she reached the t...

Fourhand is the Daily Spin's occasional roundup of various hits and misses on tour.
QUEENS UNITE Â Serena Williams didn't give Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, much to look at in her 48-minute belittling of Elena Vesnina, the quickest Wimbledon women's semifinal match since 1999. She did share a snap with her afterward, however, and Williams' mother, Oracene Price, also met the princess. (Kate's sister, tennis-loving Pippa Middleton, has attended matches this weekend as well.)
Kat...

On the occasion of their Wimbledon singles and doubles championships, here's a sampling of appearances, videosÂ and social-media posts saluting one or both Williams sisters, Serena (winner in singles and doubles)Â and Venus. They come from their friends, fellow celebrities and pro tennis players, and even both U.S. presidential candidates.
First, Angelique Kerber,Â the singles runner-up, took to Twitter to honor her vanquisher:
Big congrats to @serenawilliams!!! Thank you for your supp...

Martina Navratilova will turn 60 this October, and ahead of that, the BBC has honored her via a new documentary film called Just Call Me Martina.
The film opens with a depiction of Navratilova's wedding day with Julia Lemigova, a businesswoman and former beauty queen in Russia. Heading toward that event from her hotel room, the ever-candid Navratilova lets fly a "holy s---" at the beauty and the gravity of what she is about to do.
"She's getting married, and I'm single," Chris Evert says wit

"Dominika Cibulkova smells tennis balls" doesn't sound like the most click-baiting YouTube title ever, but these are no ordinary tennis balls. They hail from tennis' four major tournaments, and the Slovak is here to tell you that she can smell them from a mile away. When blindfolded.
"Time for something completely different," a BBC presenter says as he introduces Cibulkova's sensory clip:
In truth, she fields a Wimbledon ball first, well acquainted with its smell for the past fortnight, as s

Friends, we have officially seen it all in pro tennis.
Late in their third-round doubles match against Jonathan Marray and Adil Shamasdin, Marcel Granollers and Pablo Cuevas staged a sit-in at their chairs on court. Cuevas reportedly threatened to relieve himself in a tennis-ball canister if he wasn't allowed to take a bathroom break. Chair umpire Aurelie Tourte had refused his request, inciting the pair's anger. Two different code violations were assessed to the tandem during the ongoing spat,

Another major tournament, another round of sartorial outrage. Adidas' zebra effect at Roland Garros bred ballyhoo over Nike's so-called "negligee" at Wimbledon. Even so, the all-white dress code that the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club enforces on all competitors makes for rather constraining creative optionsâ€"unless, say, your name is Bethanie Mattek-Sands. See below for the Spin's take on the style hits and misses of this third Grand Slam event of the season, including some non-...

Serena Williams was frustrated. She had wasted eight break points in the first set of her second-round match against fellow American Christina McHale, and she wasn't having it. Thus, with nothing else to blame, she took out her anger on her racquet, smacking it on the grass beside her chair a few times and then, a few seconds later, flinging it behind her across the slick green surface.
It just so happened to find a cameraman's lap:
Serena flung her racquet behind her after losing 1st set.

Call it Juan Martin del Potro versus Stan Wawrinka versus Hawk-Eye.
Wawrinka, up 3-2 in the third set in their high-end second-rounder at Wimbledon, challenged the line call on a Del Potro serve and was soon rebuffed by what Hawk-Eye revealedâ€"that the ball was well inside the line.
Delpo shot Stan an amused look, gesturing with the tennis balls in his hand in a "Really, friend?" fashion. Wawrinka shrugged it off with a chuckle, then raised his hands to his face as if he needed eyeglas...

Fourhand is the Daily Spin's occasional roundup of various hits and misses on tour.
IMPROPER: Pity the poor Wimbledon line judge whose requests for friendly fist bumps from his peers were shirked.Â
QUEEN'S CLUB: After being relegated to Court 18 for her second-round match, a three-set victory, Venus Williams was asked by the press what she thought of the idea of a five-time Wimbledon men's singles champion being put on such an outer court.Â "I havenâ€™t seen that in the scheduling ...

When Kevin Spacey asks Andy Murray "Why the WWF?â€ you can rest assured that he's not talking about the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment).Â Quite another thing, as it turns out. Namely, the two are teaming up to support the World Wildlife Fund, specifically tigers in the wild, by shooting a short clip in (what else?) the London rain:Â
In the video, Murray notes that about 4,000 tigers abide in the wild these days, and Spacey adds that that total is less ...

Fourhand is the Daily Spin's occasional roundup of various hits and misses on tour.
PLAY IT FORWARD: New York Times stalwart Christopher Clarey reported that aÂ French photographer had all of her gear stolen, and the hundreds of people who rallied to help her included one Alize Cornet. For all the heat she takes, some of it quite warranted, good on Cornet for putting some positive energy back into the universe.Â
STARRY SPACE: That posh showhome party in The Hamptons that Venus Williams an...

Fourhand is the Daily Spin's occasional roundup of various hits and misses on tour.
IVYPOVA: If Maria Sharapova actually ends up taking her two-year suspension from tennis sitting down, it may be at a desk. A scholastic sabbatical appears on tap for the current WTA No. 35, who is planning to attend Harvard Business Schoolâ€™s executive program. Former Harvard attendee James Blake had some advice for her,
@MariaSharapova good luck. Word of advice, don't touch the statue of John Harvard. ...

The season's best WTA fashion showcase rolled out in London's Kensington borough on Thursday, with the tour's stars showing up despite the rain to glisten and shimmer in an array of stylish looks. In light of their impending destiny with one to 13 days of wearing solely white in the world's view, the WTA players staged a grand walkway replete with a number of sartorial hits and a few misses.
Looming large on this night: dramatic, photogenic off-the-shoulder(s) moments. Here's the Daily Spin's r

He hasn't played a sanctioned match since spontaneously inserting himself into Bosnia's Davis Cup lineup in 2015â€"a retired team captain can do thatâ€"but Amer Delic will soon return to competition. Not at the tour level, mind you. No, that's firmly in the rear-view mirror for him, but rather for the Pearson Ford Open in Indianapolis, a city where he saw early promise and had some success at the RCA Championships during his ATP career.
In the impending Pearson event, Delic may encoun...

Fourhand is the Daily Spin's occasional roundup of various hits and misses on tour.
FLAPPERS Â Most ofÂ Nike's sponsored players in the women's singles draw at Wimbledon have reportedly been called in to have their dresses altered due to a literal flap. WTA pros have complained that the dress flies up during competition and impedes their movement or strokes. Tennis observers themselves haven't exactly been captivated by the look either, with many excoriating Nike for its intimate-looking de...

Everyone's favorite "shero," Billie Jean King, will be feted when the Logo channel showcases its 2016 Trailblazer Honors on June 25. The awards are doled out to "pioneers who bravely fought for equality." Alongside King, honorees include Harvey Fierstein, theÂ Tony Award-winning actor and playwright;Â The AdvocateÂ magazine; and Subhi Nahas, a Syrian refugee who spoke at the United Nations Security Council's first-ever symposium concerning Islamic State (ISIS) violence against LGBT people....

Serena Williams is a complicated person, and her day planner isn't simple, either. Lately she has promoted her â€œSerenaâ€ documentary, set to premiere on Epix on Wednesday night;Â jetted to the UK to prepare for Wimbledon; relayed to her social-media audiences how she forgot her grass-court shoes stateside (and, hilariously, saluted her eyebrows); and dazzled on the cover of WSJ. Magazine.Â
.@serenawilliams forgot her grass court shoes for @Wimbledon in the U.S. but @nike hooke...

"It's just gay tennis."
So goes the saying in the Gay and Lesbian Tennis Alliance, speaking to sportsmanship and not fretting the small stuff. The GLTA is a niche, international league that I've competed in since 2008, when I played in my firstÂ sanctioned tournament, the Indianapolis homestand event. I've competed at three levelsâ€"C, B and then Aâ€"based on skill level at the time. Open and D divisions also exist, with the former bringing in a lot of club pros, instructors, former...

Fourhand is the Daily Spin's occasional roundup of various hits and misses on tour.
GARISHÂ Â Lukasz Kubot may be sporting this season's worst on-court attire in men's tennis, but that didn't stopÂ him from storming to the Gerry Weber Open doubles final alongside partner Alexander Peya. The two fell toÂ Rajeev Ram and Raven Klaasen, the grass-court tournamentâ€™sÂ defending champions. In the meantime, we'll wish that whoever told Tommy Haas to put some sleeves on at yesteryear's ...

Tennis may be a solitary sport, but Rafael Nadal has joined the ensemble cast of a new music video,Â "Don't You Need Somebody.â€ It's dance artist and DJ RedOne's latest single. The performer may be best known for his work with Lady Gaga in her glory days, but for his new song, he enlists the help of (deep breath now) Jennifer Lopez, Milla Jovovich, Akon, Cristiano Ronaldo, Shaggy, Priyanka Chopra, Randy Jackson, Ryan Seacrestâ€"Rafaâ€"and more. See it here:
In truth, Rafa do...

"Kelly, can you handle this? Ciara, can you handle this?"
Snapchat maven and celebrity friend Serena Williams has had a busy year already. Sure, she trots the globe to play a sharpâ€"if recently vulnerableâ€"brand of tennis, reaching each of the Grand Slam finals to date. But she also makes time to head to Vegas with famous friends and appear on the cover of Glamour magazine.
And tag another typical, sigh-inducing heckler with tennis balls.Â
He had it coming. But Serena wasn't ...

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali, nee Cassius Clay, died over the weekend at age 74 due to septic shock. He dealt openly with Parkinson's disease for many years, becoming not just a sporting icon but an international peace advocate and more. Below is a sampling of social media posts from the professional tennis world. Ali's fellow sportspersons, like all of us, stood to learn a lot from his example and legacy.
pic.twitter.com/Jr5HcJRmeA
â€" Muhammad Ali (@MuhammadAli) June 4, 2016
The last...

Another French Open has come and gone, along with those dastardly bouts of rain that Mother Nature dropped on Paris for a few days. A new major-event queen was coronated, and the best player in men's tennis finally found himself king of Roland Garros after falling short a few times. Here are the Spin's highlights and lowlights from two weeks at RG16:
16
High
None other thanÂ Maria Sharapova opined in a timely fashion on the French Open women's final result.
Seeing that smile after a ...

Many observers noted that Eugenie Bouchard was at a crossing in her career in 2015. She slumped after achieving outsized success the previous season, which included a Wimbledon-final appearance. After her ouster from the 2016 French Open in Paris, she found herself at a different crossing: seeking to enter the Netherlands, and facing down a classic "zing!" moment delivered by a local guard.Â
Immigration entering Holland:
Him: Purpose of trip?
Me: Tennis tournament
Him: Oh, shouldn't you...

Fourhand is the Daily Spin's occasional roundup of various hits and misses on tour.
ASV STAYS STYLISH: Arantxa Sanchez Vicario talked athletic-fashion points with CNN, 27 years after her similarly stylish 1989 French Open singles triumph. Her style of play couldn't be more different from that of Garbine Muguruza, the 2016 Roland Garros singles winner, but that aside, Spain has had its way in Paris over the years.Â
TRUMP THAT: Serena Williams didn't outlast Muguruza in their singles-title sm...

Among tennis players, Roger Federer headlines ESPNâ€™s World Fame 100 list. Though absent from the French Open in Paris, he ranks just behind Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Lionel Messi and Neymar.
Rafael Nadal, who is currently nursing a wrist injury and will miss the Aegon Championships held at the Queen's Club, also appears in the Top 10. Among female athletes, the currently-sidelined Maria Sharapova is tops, appearing at No. 18. The Russian is a few spots ahead of No. 25 Serena Willi...

Caroline Wozniacki didn't get a shot at taking the 2016 French Open title, withdrawing before the tournament began due to a lingering ankle injury. Even so, she's got a few shots (photos, that is) appearing in Esquire's June issue, in a spread appropriately titled "Singles Girl."
More of @CaroWozniacki for @esquire by Pamela Hanson pic.twitter.com/GXURxYcHb8
â€" Gaspar Ribeiro LanÃ§a (@gasparlanca) June 1, 2016
Thank you @esquire for my feature in the June issue!
@pamela_hanson ...

It's been said before: Come for the queen, you best not miss. Venus Williams, long heralded as a mainstay of sportsmanship in tennisâ€"not just women's tennis, but the sport itselfâ€"came under fire from a chair umpire late in her three-set victory over Alize Cornet at the French Open. Carlos Ramosâ€"in the chair a round after Cornet's chair umpire did nothing in the midst of her is-she-or-is-she-not-injured dramatics that basically amounted to crampingâ€"accused Venus of rec...

The elements of the skies have put a damper on play at Roland Garros as second-week play begins in Paris, but the elements of style remain.
Just left Roland Garros and took a stroll in the neighboring gardens pic.twitter.com/LLwh4Df5uy
â€" Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) May 30, 2016
Without further pomp, here are the 2016 French Open fashion faults. (You can see the complementary fashion aces here.)Â
Blink and you miss it.Â Jelena JankovicÂ covered up the true nature o...